Ninja and Pirate: Volume 1 On Sale Now!

Conroy is King

This is the webcomic that the Internet deserves, but not the one it needs right now. And so we’ll read it…because it can take it. Because it’s not an artwork…it’s a giggle strip…a Sunday funny…a Dork Knight.

Hey, speaking of insanely wealthy business men with too much ample time and a bizarrely placed sense of justice: Iron Man 3 is out and it is phenomenal. It’s less about Iron Man and more about Tony Stark and I really highly recommend it. A lot of people are upset because of a snafu with the portrayal of the Mandarin who is not, in fact, simply a mean-spirited citrus. To that I say: bugger off. The Mandarin has never been anyone’s favorite villain. He’s outdated, goofy, and to put it plainly: racist. There’s no way the Mandarin could, or more importantly SHOULD, be pulled off on film. I get that people feel that doing this to the Mandarin is like finding out at the end of The Dark Knight that the Joker was actually just a blow up doll with a smiley face on it all along, but Mandarin does not hold the same amount of power, lasting ability, prowess, or overall impact that the Clown Prince of Crime has. I was quite interested to see how they brought him across in the previews and was a little let down at the twist because I felt like I had been promised one thing and given another but overall the slight disappointment was long made up for. If anyone is butt hurt because “The movie just has no respect for the source material and Hollywood doesn’t get it and blah blah boo hoo waaahmbulance” then I will bet you dollars to another word that starts with D that the offended party had never even heard of the Mandarin before he was announced for the movie. Any comic fan realizes that Iron Man has grown up past his goofy Cold War Era communist scare origin to a real character with pathos and integrity. He is about as far removed from Uni-Beaming some offensively jaundiced slant-eyed buck-toothed stereotype in the face as Captain America is from actually punching Hitler in the face. In closing, the comics Iron Man 3 based itself on are the Armor Wars storyline which is pretty essential to Iron Man canon (this was also slightly touched upon in Iron Man 2), The Five Nightmares by the stellar Matt Fraction and the trace-tastic Sal Larroca, Extremis by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov (who are both credited with thanks in the movie), and Enter the Mandarin by Joe Casey and the hilarious and talented Eric Canete.

I’m going to be down in Dallas Comic-Con on May 17th and you should all come down to see me there! And not just me! You can see the iconic John Romita Jr., who drew one of my favorite Hulk stories: World War Hulk! Also attending is the immensely talented Amanda Conner, who drew what is, in my opinion, the best run of Power Girl ever. There’s also gonna be an entire exhibit on Katsuhiro Otomo and Satoshi Kon’s magnum opus, Akira, specifically from the point of view of the benchmark anime! Not to mention a friend of one of my SCAD Professors: Eric Canete who definitely inspired some parts of the new Iron Man 3! Oh! Oh! And THE Jim Steranko! The living legend of Fantastic Four and Avengers and many other classic comics will be there too! It’s gonna be fun on the run in a bun! And also strenuous! I’m gonna have some great prints and stuff to pawn out and I’ll always be glad to see or hear from a fan of the comic!

Even MORE exciting than that is my good buddy and previous best man J. Alan Davidson is in the new film Home Run so you should totally go see that because he’s a meth head! He also plays one in the film, too! No seriously, he’s an awesomely cool guy and could use the support. He’s one of the best actors I know and has taught me more than anyone should have to. And not just because I have a severe learning disability that makes me forget how numbers work but because he’s just genuinely a good guy.

Ninja and Pirate isn’t getting a lot of views compared to some of the other webcomic artists I’ve been talking to, so keep getting that word out! Tell your friends about Ninja and Pirate and how it will ALWAYS be family friendly and will ALWAYS be free. I am doing my best to keep this site going, but I need your help. I put up some Project Wonderful ads on the site and hopefully some merch and t-shirts are on the way, but the biggest help will be to just tell people about Ninja and Pirate so that they can enjoy it for themselves! I WILL be upgrading to TWO comics a week soon, rather than the just Wednesday, but that’s still in the works. I’m trying to get time to be able to work on them but I will be doing it. I’ll let you guys know when it’s coming though, regardless!

Thank you to everyone for reading and supporting Ninja and Pirate! You guys are amazing and are the reason I keep doing this: so that people can always laugh! I’ll see you guys next week! And, as always, you can get in contact with me by following me on Twitter at @NinjaandPirate or e-mailing me at ninja_pirate_comic@yahoo.com! Don’t worry because I’m very lonely! I mean personable! And friendly! And…feed shelter to the homeless? Is that a thing?

Don’t get discouraged, Joe. It’s a tough road, but it does get better. I like to entertain an audience, but I make my strips for my own amusement first, and if I wasn’t able to find the joy in that I wouldn’t do it. One year is a great milestone, you’ve made it this far, try to enjoy your journey and keep positive. I felt the same way you do at my first year. If this is something you really want to do, do it. It happens in stages and it does build, it just takes a lot of work and patience.